A system may be comprised of multiple busses to connect a storage controller with multiple storage devices. A Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus may be used to connect the storage device controller with the multiple storage devices, such as solid state drives (SSDs) to transfer read and write commands and data. The system may also include a System Management Bus (SMBus) providing simple two wire bus pairs between the storage device controller and each storage device for power management operations, communicate manufacturer information, temperature information, report errors, and return status. The storage device controller may also control other devices through the SMBus, such as fans and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that signal states of the connected storage devices.
The storage device controller may be implemented in a baseboard management controller (BMC), which is typically implemented as a chip on the motherboard that monitors the temperature in the system resulting from central processing unit (CPU) and storage device operations. The BMC may use the SMBus to control the operation of fans to reduce the temperature of the connected storage devices and CPU. The BMC operates independently of the storage devices and the information they gather, including temperature and other attributes of operations.